Great Wolf -July 4th trip, part 1

We loaded up and headed out to Dallas on Friday afternoon after Anna's Camp Invention Inventor's Showcase. We knew we would be in late but wanted to get on the road anyway. Thanks West Memphis, Arkansas for continuing to have AWFUL construction (going down from three lanes to one lane) for about 5 miles after we exited the bridge from Memphis. This literally cost us 45-60 minutes. Lovely way to start the trip. We ended up not eating dinner until 8pm that night but thanks to games and DVDs in the car and lots of good snacks that I packed we all survived. We ended up arriving in Dallas around 11pm on Friday night. Kids were asleep in the car and never really woke up which was great. Saturday was full of fun things for sure.

Saturday started the Tour de France....a FAVORITE in our home. The cyclists that Gary cared most about were at the end of the prologue so we waited until they were done and then headed out to Great Wolf Lodge. This is a place I was not famliar with until my brother suggested we go while in Dallas. It is located near the Dallas/Fort Worth airport in Grapevine, TX. It is a resort of types with an indoor and outdoor water park. You have to stay on the property to use the water park (of course my sister, sister-in-law and I are such crooks we were trying to determine if we kept our wristbands on if we could get back in at a later date!). We arrived at 1:30pm and by 2pm had it all figured out and were in the water. Of course Anna, tall giant that she is, measuring almost 53 inches could ride anything there. Jennifer's twins (lucky ducks!!) and Blake were tall enough for everything but the two largest slides and that left Caroline and Drew (each 1 inch too short) and Henry (many inches too short) to the smaller slides. All of the kids (and grown up kids, I might add) had a blast. I cannot even remember the last time I was at a full blown water park. We were remembering Adventure River in Memphis growing up but that has been since high school.

We spent the night after a full afternoon of water activities and tired faces, ate plenty of pizza and headed off to bed. The next morning as Gary and I were packing up the car and the kids were behind in the hotel room with their cousins we decided to sneak in a quick ride on the Torndao Ride. It was insane with a huge drop in the dark. We were one of the first ones on that morning and had very little wait. We enjoyed a good day on Saturday as well. Kids were getting tired by mid-afternoon so we headed back to my brother's house. Enjoyed some fajitas for dinner and noticed that the parents were WAY more tired than the kids.

Highly recommend Great Wolf Lodge. Lots to do but cannot imagine staying more than 1 or 2 nights. We heard of people going for a week....have these people heard of Disney World? It costs about the same if you stay that long!!! Many locations across the country but none really close to where we live, so definitely a treat!

gary with caroline after one of her MANY trips down the smaller water slides....FEARLESS.

shooting the water pistols, probably at perfect strangers

anna with me after going on one of the big slides....she was super brave and went on every single thing multiple times. she was definitely up for the challenge.


the whole crew
gary and anna in a double float on one of the outdoor slides

external view of the "torndao" slide that starts and ends indoors but takes a trip outside as well. very crazy ride with a large drop in the DARK!

Camp Invention

Anna attended Camp Invention this week hosted at her school. It was a week of very creative and inventive fun. The kids each had to bring an old electronic item to "take apart" and understand the inner workings of this item. Being the computer geek household, Anna took an old hard drive. The kids also had to brings lots of recyled materials to use throughout the week. On Friday the camp hosted the "inventors showcase" and we got to walk through what a day was like for her. She showed us her invention which was a "CD Checker" that made sure that CD's worked and were not scratched and cleaned them if they were scratched. She got a "mock patent" for her invention. She used the old hard drive to make this invention. She also showed us her robot that actually walked around. So awesome to see the spark in her face when she showed us how it worked. She learned so much this week and is already ready for next year. Love that camp for sure!!

anna's robot that could walk around
anna's invention

Fish Funeral

Anna got her first beta fish for Christmas 2008....Sassy she was named. She was a great fish. She had been slowing down lately and her fins were looking a little sad. While packing for our July 4th trip to Dallas, I noticed sad Sassy, upside down in the fish bowl at the bottom and completely void of color. I texted Gary who was still at work and asked how we should break the news. When Gary arrived home we sat Anna down and Gary told her that Sassy had died. Immediately the girls wanted to go and look at her. Anna was a little sad but when given the choice of how to "bury" Sassy, she chose a good old fashioned burial in the backyard. Caroline was trying to feed her because she said she was just hungry but we tried to explain it without being too graphic. Anna wrote a note or eulogy for Sassy and we found a paper clip box to bury her in. Anna said a few words and then we all said goodbye. We promised to get another fish upon returning from Texas. I think Caroline is very concerned about whether Sassy is in heaven or not and whether she is happy now or not. Sweet girl. This honestly has been a major conversation topic of Caroline's (heaven and whether people and/or animals return from heaven once they are there) for about 2-3 months. Rest in peace, Sassy.

anna's note to sassy: "I loved Sassy so much. I am going to miss her. She was always smiling at me. I cared for her"


gary digging the grave

anna reading her note to sassy

finishing touches

When Daddy's away....

Gary had to go to Atlanta for four days this week for a training class and to meet with some clients. He NEVER travels for work. In fact the last time he traveled was two years ago this month and before that was two years before that. So, therefore, the girls are not used to him being gone. After we saw Toy Story 3 last Sunday and were driving to the airport to drop Gary off, Caroline cried for 1 hour. She was so sad. It was making us all so sad. She really had no recollection of Gary being gone for an extended period of time. Once the tears cleared, we were prepping for the week. Glad it was summer so the schedule was more relaxed. We have done well. I've managed to get to work each day around 8am and have had great luck with the girls. No timeouts all week!!! We've been to the gym a few times, Chick-fil-a kids eat free/do a craft night, played in the sprinklers and kept up our tradition of family walks each night. Have not taken many pictures but did take a few while the sprinklers were on. We are ready for Gary to be back and glad he caught an earlier flight!

awesome pic of anna

sweet sisters

really love this picture....not even staged : )

Father's Day

Sunday was all about Gary as we Zyrieks celebrated Father's Day. My dad was out of town on a golf retreat to Colorado with his friends and their wives. My stepfather suggested just meeting for dinner so we could spend the day with Gary. Gary arose SUPER early to get in a bike ride before the heat set in and before church. Not sure he evaded the heat, but he did get in a great ride. I made a gourmet breakfast of pancakes to have waiting when he returned. We all went to church and afterwards the girls and I treated Gary to a yummy lunch at Houston's. The food was great. The girls had never been there before but it turned out great....definitely a hot spot for families on Sunday!! To beat the heat we took in an afternoon showing of Toy Story 3. Very good movie and even a little bit of a tear jerker at the end. The girls were laughing all throughout the movie and Gary and I were even laughing a lot as well. After the movie was over we were off to take Gary to the airport for his week in Atlanta for work. Gary never travels but has a class plus some customer visits to do this week so we were all a bit sad, especially Caroline who literally cried for an hour saying she was going to miss Daddy. I don't think she really has ever experienced him traveling at all. Such a shock for her and even made Gary a little sad as well.

After the airport we met Mom and Dan for dinner....Great Father's Day all around. Wish my dad had been in town and it would have been perfect! We celebrated the weekend before with my dad. 4 out of 5 of his kids were in town and we celebrated his birthday and father's day all together. He enjoyed having so many kids and grandkids around to celebrate and it was fun.

I love Gary so much and the girls adore him. Glad that we had a great day together to celebrate!!

Dave Ramsey....kid style

Anna decided that it was time that she start receiving an allowance. Glad she is in charge of the finances around here!! We talked some with her about what it means to earn an allowance and that there would be work involved. We decided a great way for her to learn about money and how to properly earn, save and spend her money was through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Junior book/CD. Gary and I have both learned the ways of Dave Ramsey and agree with the taught principles. You live like no one else he says so one day you can live like no one else. Of course that is not so easy for a 7 year old to understand. The cute book and CD took the principles and put them into kid friendly scenarios.

Anna has amassed quite a few dollars recently and so we did agree that this was the perfect time to really start teaching Anna smart ways to use her money. We are using the "envelope" system with her that Dave teaches. One envelope for spending money, one envelope for saving money and one envelope for giving away to a special cause. We immediately calculating what 10% of her money was and put that in the giving envelope. She decided she wanted to save for a Nintendo DS game. Even though she had enough money to buy it we thought it would be good to earn something she wanted. We let her put half of the cost of the game in the save envelope from what she had already and then let her earn the rest through her allowance or "commission" as they teach in Financial Peace. We made a list of chores or tasks that she needed to do each week and what those were worth. We also listed things that were expected of her that she did not earn anything for. We then finally listed out things that she would get a "fine" for that would take away from what she had learned.

June 1st was the first week we started the allowance. She did fairly well. That week I was home with the girls and so there were more opportunities to earn a fine. She earned 70% of her allowance that week. The next week she earned 90% and this past week she earned 100%. She now has enough to buy the game if we buy it online. It will take one more week to earn it if she wants to go into a store and purchase it. We'll see what she chooses.

I'm proud of her for wanting to earn some money. Between her Art Camp and VBS at church last week she has given away all her "give" money. She was so excited to take her own money for the offering. We'll see how she continues to do....so far, so good!

Art Camp

The summer camps have officially begun in the Zyriek house. Caroline will be at Harding all summer but have some fun added camps such as gymnastics and soccer to help entertain her. Her camps have a theme every week such as Ocean, Western or her favorite week, week #2, Disney week! For June, Anna is doing a few different things. This week was Art Camp at First Evan Church. We were invited to attend by some of Anna's school friends who had attended the previous year and really enjoyed it.


Art Camp is First Evan's version of Vacation Bible School. It lasts from 9 to 12:30 for a week. The kids make all kinds of fun art projects every day. They also learn awesome Bible stories and songs and have an all around wonderful time. Anna really enjoys art so I was so excited we found out about this camp. It is only for kids entering first through fifth grades and there is a limit on the number of kids. First Evan is located just down the street from my current client, so each day Anna came with me to work in the morning which she thought was an extra treat. They received a t-shirt to wear each day (helped to identify the ages of the kids) and a cool backpack to bring home certain art treasures each day.


On Friday of Art Camp the director has the parents attend the Art Show. Each child has several "works of art" displayed in the gym nicely with their names showing off their talents. The art show also included the parents hearing several songs and also learning a little bit more about the week. Anna was excited to show off her work and also show us that she made the end of the week slide show 4 times. Overall, kudos to First Evan for a very organized event that was much enjoyed. We will definitely be back next year.

anna in her art camp t-shirt with her sharpie around her neck

this is what the sharpie is for...all the kids sign each other's shirts

one of her pieces of art from the week....water lilies masterpiece!

crazy self portrait by anna